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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Preponderate

Pre-pŏn'der-āte, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. PREPONDERATED; p. pr. & vb. n. PREPONDERATING.] [Lat. præponderare, præponderatum, from præ, before, and ponderare, to weigh, from pondus, ponderis, a weight, from pendere, to weigh; It. preponderare, Sp. preponderar. Cf. PREPONDER.]

Sense 1. To outweigh; to overpower by weight; to have greater weight than.

An inconsiderable weight, by distance from the center of the balance, will preponderate greater magnitudes. Glanville.

Sense 2. To overpower by stronger influence or moral power.

Sense 3. To cause to prefer; to decide. [Obs.]

The desire to spare Christian blood preponderates him for peace. Fuller.

Pre-pôn'der-āte, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To exceed in weight; hence, to incline or descend, as the scale of a balance.

That is no just balance in which the heaviest side will not preponderate. Wilkins.

Sense 2. To exceed in influence or power; hence, to incline to one side.

By putting every argument, on one side and the other, into the balance, we must form a judgment which side preponderates. Watts.